2014: Some (Honest) Publishing Numbers, and (Almost) Throwing in the Towel

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The most brutally honest, informative, no-BS account I have ever read about what it's like to be a talented writer with a well-loved genre series and a new one on the way. I don't know what it is now, but for a long time the easy math was that every sale basically netted the author a dollar.

With Angry Robot’s total, unflagging support, a fabulous cover, solid early reviews, and a lot of blood, sweat, and more than a few tears, THE MIRROR EMPIRE sold over 1,000 books the first week it was out, and even squeezed onto B&N’s (very) long list of fantasy trade paperback bestsellers for the week.

To date, best I can tell, we’ve sold about 7,500 copies of THE MIRROR EMPIRE in the US and Canada alone, and it’s been reprinted in both the US and UK. As the UK had a first print run of 1500, I think I can comfortably say we’re probably nearly at the 10,000 copy mark by now (I’ve only seen real POS for US/Canada; I’ll have actual total numbers when I get royalty statements early this year).

The book has been out four months.

Four months.

For comparison, the buzz-laden GOD’S WAR has sold, in the US and UK, about 12-13,000 copies in four years.